A while ago, I’m not even sure how long ago now, I knitted a hat. It wasn’t my first time knitting in the round, but I did this one entirely on double-pointed needles. It was my first ‘big’ circular knitting project that I did, besides little testing swatches to get used to it. I used all worsted weight yarn, all Lion Brand Wool-Ease (80% acrylic, 20% wool).

I used an acrylic blend because the hat was a gift and if I’m not entirely sure about someone’s laundry habits, I tend to gift acrylic or acrylic blends. It’s not because I’m selfish when it comes to the “good yarn” (well, maybe I am), but because it’s just good practice. I don’t want to make something for someone and then have them toss it into the wash and have it come out several sizes too small. That wouldn’t do me or the gift recipient any good if the hat was easily ruined, now would it?

I used a basic toque pattern and did it entirely in the base colour first. Goomba’s face was duplicate stitched on afterwards. I tried to make the inside as neat as possible, but not sure if I managed that at all. It was a pretty decent knit, the thing that I really needed to get into the habit was shuffling stitches on the dpns, I was not used to that at all.

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I’m a sucker for cute things. I really do enjoy crochet cute things with big eyes. Goomba was no exception. For Mario fans, you should recognize this little cutie. I made him for a gift a while back and never got around to posting photos of him. He was about 10cm (4″) in height. I used 5 different types of yarn (mostly Bernat Supersaver or Red Heart Supersaver; the feet were out of Bernat Satin).

I did not use a pattern (I made it up as I went along) and I will not be publishing a pattern for him (mostly because I don’t remember what I did and because Goomba is a trademarked character by Nintendo). I hope you like him.

I just wanted to do a little update! I started back at school earlier this month and I’m already busy with readings and starting to work on papers (eep!), but I just wanted to show off some of my recent doll clothing that I’ve made to fit Blythe. Everything shown was part of a swap package that I made for a dolly friend.

All the dresses are sized to fit both Blythe stock bodies and Licca bodies – in the photos below they are modeled on a Licca body (sorry for the headlessness!)

The pattern for the knit dress was made by me.

Pattern for the second dress comes from puchicollective.com.

Pattern for the third dress comes from the Doll Coordinate Recipe book #5.

Knit pattern of my own creation. I love using self-striping sock yarn for doll clothes because there’s always some kind of interesting striping pattern that comes up! Read the rest of this entry »

It was a friend’s birthday recently and I needed a gift. With work and being lazy (hah!) I decided to craft something. Armed with the knowledge that she’s a fan of cute and appreciates handcrafted goods, I decided to make her a bundle of cute. Because everyone loves cute things, right?

I started with the head/body with big cutesy black eyes. Safety-eyes are fantastic.

Then I crocheted a little leg and another and another until I had oodles of little legs. At two ends per leg, also with two ends for the head/body, it’s a lot of ends for one little cutie.

But with a trusty yarn needle I sewed and sewed and tucked and tucked until all the ends were tucked away into a stuffed little ball and he looked like this:

But he’s not as cute as he is when you can see his cute little face! World, meet Baby Octo. Baby Octo, here’s the world:

A pattern for Baby Octo is currently in the works, I just need to edit it and make sure it’s correct!

Filet crochet is all about having filled spaces and empty spaces. You accomplish this with double crochet stitches and chains. You can ‘draw’ with your empty and filled spaces, a lot like piecing together tiles of different colours – only you use yarn and your imagination.

A Little Filet Crochet Scarf is a scarf that I designed and made for my friend’s birthday gift. I had the yarn, I had the time and I had a hook. All I needed was an idea. So while I was flipping through a stitch dictionary that I have, I came across filet crochet. I’ve done a few small projects with filet crochet and love it. It’s easy to get the hang of, once you understand the concept, and it can go by pretty quickly (if time is an issue), plus it’s fun to make a pattern with your squares.

The pattern is written up as a one-size-only scarf, but you can easily add on more repeats to lengthen the scarf to your liking.

Want to make your own scarf? Click to download a PDF copy of the A Little Filet Crochet Scarf pattern.

Difficulty Level: Easy